Odin has made quite a name for themselves in the world of metal… for all the wrong reasons. It all goes back to their infamous appearance in the infamous 1988 “rockumentary” Decline of the Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years.

In that documentary, the boys of Odin claimed it was success or death. Well, they ain’t dead yet and I guess everyone has their own definition of “success”. Given that they’ve only released a handful of EPs and one LP over the last 24 years, and are now the subject of an 18-track “best of” compilation in 2009, you could say that they’ve achieved a modicum of success (if only with 80s rock/metal diehards).

Despite displaying some hair metal silliness during Decline, I’ve always thought Odin was a solid act with Randy O’s nasally vocals being perfect for the type of music they played. Previous to coming across this release, the only Odin release I had been (vaguely) familiar with Perris’ 2001 reissue of Fight For Your Life.

Forgetting about that image seen on the big screen, it’s easy to see why Odin was noticed enough in the first place to take part in that film. There’s some very good metal to be found here. Perhaps if the band didn’t display themselves in such an unintentionally comedic light during filming, they could have used the exposure to actually get that major record deal they were talking about. There’s tons of potential to be found in this collection with “12 O’Clock High” being the best of the bunch. What really hurts these songs is poor production values.

Still, if you wanna experience Odin, this is the release to do it with because these 18 tracks almost capture their entire career.